How do you design a knowledge management system that meets not only the functional requirements but also a predefined set of usability objectives? What makes an application usable? This presentation gets you going in the right direction.
Are you doing usability testing on your application's user interface? Use this checklist to perform a thorough review on how easily users interpret, navigate and respond to the GUI.
You've tested the new system or application and found some bugs that require the attention of the development team. This form will help you characterize the type, description and disposition of post-testing system change requests.
Developing the necessary contingent of test cases to completely and accurately test the system you are building involves detailed thinking and can be a hit-or-miss activity if you improvise. Check off the items here to determine if your test cases will reveal all the hidden problems and ensure that all scenarios are addressed.
The Detailed Acceptance Test Plan document provides and describes the required test activities and timelines for your project team to perform the testing of a system.
Integration testing ensures that each component of the application you develop works correctly within the system as a whole. Record any errors discovered through integration testing and request system changes using this form.
This Interface Requirements document outlines application designs that impact application usability, which include are not limited to content presentation, application navigation and user assistance.
Customer (or user) satisfaction is fundamental to a project’s success. Understanding and documenting customer attitudes and needs will better prepare project teams to meet expectations and deliver the anticipated benefits. It starts with the requirements gathering phase.
A knowledge management system is no good if people can't--or won't--use it. Don't gloss over usability measures, or you'll end up shooting yourself in the foot.
Product development requires a unified, collaborative team effort. A social project management framework, combined with the right social tools, helps to connect team activities to the product development process and stakeholders. The benefits include increased visibility, more accurate estimates, responsive, real-time analysis and streamlined workflows.
Agile projects benefit from the rapid pace of feedback achieved through frequent releases, but what happens when you’re working on a complex project with a long timeline and resistance to releasing early? As a compensating strategy, story maps based on project goals can leverage some benefits of a release even if you aren’t “going live” any time soon.
There is enormous untapped potential in a project management tool that can leverage agile, social and gaming principles to enhance team productivity and collaboration. RedCritter has launched its first shot at this emerging target, and the hit-and-miss results get a hands-on review here.
What are the business drivers for enterprise project portfolio management, what are the consolidation challenges and what is the solution?
CA Technologies recently introduced a new version of its PPM solution. Among the updates is the integration of Chatter, a collaboration application from Salesforce.com.
Being a good software development team means understanding, analyzing and translating requirements into useful technology. It may even mean unearthing those requirements from a messy complex of history, politics and other unknown perils lurking amongst your client project stakeholders. Learn from this writer's experiences.
To enhance performance and get a jump on their competitors, companies no longer need managers, they need leaders. Leadership has become a widely examined topic of academic research, especially within business schools. There is now a substantial body of research and literature on all aspects of leadership: what it is, how it influences the behavior of individuals and groups, and how it achieves its effects. Here we take a look at leadership competencies and project results.
QA in an Agile environment is very different…are your teams ready? Here we look at how QA needs to evolve in order to best support Agile development practices.
CollabNet updates its TeamForge platform and ScrumWorks project management application, focusing on scaling agile to the enterprise through flexible reporting, ease of use and other enhancements.
An increasing number of Mac-based project management applications now have mature feature sets, increased flexibility and attractive usability that rival their Windows-based counterparts. Here’s one senior IT pro’s review of five Mac apps gaining notice in the project world.
Part 1 of this two-part series introduces the agile engineering principles and practices that, when implemented, enable some teams and their respective organizations to build high-quality software very quickly that will please customers. Organizations embracing these practices--when used in conjunction with agile and lean management practices--can gain delivery advantages on their competitors while managing lower maintenance and support costs in the long term.
On any project, it’s the job of the business analyst to ensure that the business objectives and issues are understood by participants. And when the project involves end users of a new or enhanced solution, there are great benefits to be realized when the BA teams up with a user experience (UX) professional.
Is your food the best on the market? Even though software companies spend billions of dollars on market research and usability studies, the majority of them don't even use their own product internally.
A new survey finds that more software development professionals and executives see IT budgets increasing, but project scope and estimation are still concerns.
While attending a recent course, this writer learned some simple techniques for better defining the customer and their desires. This article introduces some of the techniques that will help ensure teams know who their customers and users are, who they are not and how to create winning solutions for delivering value.
Whether it is factual accuracy, stability of service or coherence of presentation, there are standards of acceptability that all of us--industry and non-industry people--take for granted.
So many vendors, so many products, so many choices. How can you possibly get to the bottom of it all? With these six criteria, you'll be on your way to making the right decision.
Here’s a closer look at what’s new in the recently introduced Microsoft Project 2010, including some changes to the user experience and new planning, tracking and collaboration features.
IT projects in government have their own set of challenges. Are you ready to meet them?
A central tenet of user-centered design is iterative revision based on customer use. In theory, you keep iterating the design until it's right. In reality, the designer and project manager should work together to set limits and organize the process.
At the heart of agile methods is the key tenet that teams and teamwork are better than individual contributions and effort. Here we explore the key factors and attributes of teams and teamwork for agile project management.
Shortsightedness can shortchange your organization on the benefits of project portfolio management. A top PPM analyst shares best practices on how to embrace the big picture and how evolving PPM tools can help.
A wide variety of technology solutions and services are available to help organizations implement, customize and improve their project portfolio management processes. Here is our August roundup of recent updates and announcements from CA, Daptiv, Innotas, Oracle Primavera, Planview, PowerSteering, Rally and others.
The success of a content management system (CMS) depends on if it is being used and whether authors create content. These two challenges make the usability of the CMS critically important.
To think that content should be able to stand on its own is no longer appropriate: It must be designed to be reusable and recyclable so that it can be distributed throughout an enterprise and the environment at large in order to be effective.
For the world’s largest processor of credit card transactions, real-time collaboration with no geographic constraints was the only way to get a handle on a slice of some 4,000 projects. It turned to a highly configurable project portfolio management application that emphasized social networking, visibility and usability.
It's a myth that needs to be debunked. While some software developers may consider quality attributes to be superfluous--and therefore don't even document or understand them--they are a critical part of your product, and your business.
How does the CEO of a New Zealand-based creative design agency become a provider of project management software? Ask Julian Stone, director of ProActive Software Ltd. Stone created a project management tool for his Palm Pilot five years ago and shortly thereafter began marketing it internationally. But it’s tough for a small firm to build credibility, cater to would-be customers and find its niche in a universe dominated by much larger stars.
As the new year progresses, we ask: What will be the next technological innovation that will drive opportunity in our market?
Government contractor Johnston McLamb shares details about the benefits of pursuing process improvement via a more rigorous CMMI rating. Such a trend is spreading among smaller IT firms worldwide, according to CMMI program manager Mike Phillips.
Here we are at the mid-point of our 12-part series. We have seen the underlying principles that made up the Roman way of life and led to their success. We've explored the principles that made their engineering so successful. Now let's spend some time examining their planning and risk management techniques.
Driving from point A to point B might require a map, but driving customers to your business requires much more. Creating and sustaining successful CRM solutions requires commitment from your entire organization and a single, clearly defined implementation roadmap.
ITIL appears ready for prime time. So why isn’t it being implemented with great success across the board in IT organizations? This two-part series will set forth some observations and insights on how you can successfully evolve ITIL standards into your organization.
Are you a power leech? Plenty of options out there--including upcoming ones on the tech landscape--will feed your need.
On multi-team development projects, there are significant advantages in having each team organize around the end-to-end delivery of features as opposed to working on separate components. Fewer handoffs reduce waste and integration-related risks. And feature teams have a clearer understanding of the impact of design decisions. However, in some circumstances, component teams offer benefits.
Formal processes have their place in the halls of project management, but sometimes a little project management ad-lib can go a long way. You won't end up at the Improv, but you may uncover your best practice when it comes to managing projects.
Why can't we get a book that provides guidance targeted to managers of groups of professionals without shying away from the awkward, difficult situations? Woops, never mind. Here's one.
By following the requirement management fixes, teams can apply these few tactical steps to help improve their team’s requirements management processes.
It's not just musical tastes and style of dress that separate the generations, in the workplace, you may find that differences in work ethics, communication styles, values and a number of other issues fall along generational lines. Here are some suggestions to help you bridge the generation gaps.
Are your key written resources used by project workers stored randomly by a mad librarian? Toss that library card and use a context-rich intranet repository instead.
When it comes to traditional projects, an effective project manager who does some essential tasks well clearly adds value in improving predictability, perception and the likelihood of success. But can the same be said for agile projects? Or is there a different set of skills and/or roles needed?
